The Gretsch 1960s Round Badge Kits are legendary kits. Currently they are one of the most sought after kits from that era. We recorded this kit to capture a certain sound, the sound of the late 60s and early 70s that came out of the Royal Studios in Memphis. Home to legendary producer and founder of Hi Records, Willie Mitchell. This studio was responsible for recording hit after hit from famous Soul Artists such as Al Green and Ann Peebles. We have studied and recreated the drum sound.

Unlike the one microphone, large open room drum sounds coming out of Motown and Stax in the 60’s/early 70’s, Willie Mitchell preferred a small dry room, often using three or four microphones on the drum kit. To capture the same sound we used the perfectly suited dry live room at Miloco’s The Square. The concept behind the mic positioning is unique to this release. We used four mic’s, each placed in carefully selected positions around the kit, so each mic captures the drum kit as a whole, meaning you can use any one mic as your drum sound, or you can blend any or all of the mic’s to create your ideal sound.

The drum kit was produced and recorded by South London drummer Timmy Rickard who has studied the grooves and sound of this great era. The kit is a classic sounding late 60s kit with wallets placed on the tuned down snares, a tea towel was used on the floor tom and we have recorded the ride with and without a chain. Also included are four classic vintage snares and the kit is finally topped off with some percussion - congos, a tambourine and shaker.

About the kit -

Kick Drum - Gretsch Round Badge Kick Drum 20" x 14"

Snare Drum A - Gretsch Renown Maple Snare 14" x 6"

Snare Drum B - Gretsch Renown Maple Snare 14" x 5"

Snare Drum C - Ludwig Acrolite Snare 14" x 5"

Snare Drum D - Ludwig 400 Snare 14" x 5"

Hi-Hat - Bosphorous New Orleans 16" Crash Hi Hats

Rack Tom - Gretsch Round Badge Rack Tom 13" x 9"

Floor Tom - Gretsch Round Badge Floor Tom 16" x 16"

Ride - Bosphorous New Orleans 20” Ride

Crash A - Bosphorous New Orleans 18" Crash

Crash B - Bosphorous Traditional 18" Crash

Shaker

Tambourine

Congas

Like other Drumdrops kits it can be purchased in seven different packs.

The Multi-Velocity pack provides up to 16 velocity steps of each articulation. Each sample included in this pack is a mix of the 5 microphones setup around the kit. This pack comes with patches for Battery 3, Kontakt 5, EXS24, Maschine, Geist, Studio One's Impact Soundset, Ableton Drum Rack, iDrum, Reason Refills, Renoise and the free TX16Wx sampler but the samples can be used in any drum machine or sampler that reads 24 bit WAV files. The multi-velocity pack now also includes over 500 MIDI drum loops covering a variety of genres. We have also included MIDI Maps for a lot of the popular defaults. This pack is a great choice for those who want multiple velocity articulations but do not use Kontakt 5. This pack comes with 735 samples.

The Single Hits pack is similar to our multi-velocity pack but provides three velocities of each articulation. This pack also includes presets for Battery 3, Kontakt 5, EXS24, Maschine, Geist, Studio One's Impact Soundset, Ableton Drum Rack, iDrum, Renoise and Reason Refills but if you run any drum machines such as Akai MPC60s this pack may be ideal as the samples come as 16-bit WAVs and 24-bit WAVs. This pack comes loaded with 180 samples.

The One Shot Sample pack is our cheapest pack and a great pack for those who either just need one sample from each articulation (drum machine users) and no patches or for customers who want to check out the sound of this kit before purchasing any of the more expensive packs.

Whichever pack you choose you can be reassured that is has the Drumdrops quality stamped all over it. Explore more of these pages to read about the kit and work out which pack is best for you. If you want a late 60s Al Jackson Jr drum sound then this is kit for you. If you can't wait to get your hands on these packs then check out our drum tracks album Royal Drops.This drum track album contains 15 Soul drum tracks recorded using this very kit, with the same mics and in the same studio. All the tracks are available to buy as multi-tracks, stem packs and drum loops. We think this kit is awesome and there is nothing out there like it.

If you like the sound of this kit, check out Royal Drops which features drums tracks played on the Gretsch 1960s Round Badge Soul Kit.

Please note Demo Tracks feature additional musical content not included in the pack.

Any references to any brands on this site/page, including reference to brands and instruments, are provided for description purposes only. For example references to instrument brands are provided to describe the sound of the instrument and/or the instrument used in the sample. Loopmasters do not have (nor do they claim) any association with or endorsement by these brands. Any goodwill attached to those brands rest with the brand owner. Loopmasters or its Suppliers do not accept any liability in relation to the content of the sample or the accuracy of the description. "RHODES" is a registered trademark of Joseph A Brandstetter.